T5 performance

Quite surprised today, I had a T5 saloon on the rear bumper of my Calibra turbo and I couldn't shake it off.

My Cally is bog standard but would have expected to comfortably out-accelerate a T5 ( my old 21 turbo would leave them for dead).

Have I underestimated the T5 or was it non- standard?

Anyone with performance figures?

Dear John,

A standard T5 will do 0-60 in roughly 7 secs, limited to 155mph, they will do the 1/4 mile in 15.6 I believe at 92mph??

Roughly that anyway..but bear in mind turbo lag so they can keep with naturally aspirated cars that run 6 secs 0-60. If that makes sense!!

As I'm sure you know turbos are usually very easy to mod and a simple chip and catback exhaust will put them from stock 240bhp to at least 280bhp (if all else is correct with the car!) and it is possible to get upto about 350bhp without TOO many problems by dropping a few k's into the car.

With no more than £1000 mods (on a dry road!!!!) they will run 5.9 ish to 60, and do the 1/4 mile in about 14secs at 100ish mph.

What about calibras?? How easy are they to mod? What performance specs to they have?? I've always thought they were fast but have no actual idea on them!

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the figures.

The Calibra turbo has 205 bhp but with 4WD has a greater transmission loss than 2WD drive cars.

Road test figures 0-60 in 6.2 secs
0-100 in 16.9 secs
s/s 1/4 in 14.6 secs

Although the car has been around for a long time seems that tuning is just taking off.
The Calibra suffers from a small intercooler. Changing this alone can bring 240 bhp.
Next stage is a phase 2 chip, 280bhp.
A phase 3 chip will give 310 bhp on an otherwise standard engine.
There is a phase 4 chip giving 380bhp but an internal rebuild is required for this.

There are are quite a lot of Cavalier / Calibras now running with phase 3 chips. Also a lot of Astra owners are fitting the turbo engine and 6 speed gearbox. They obviously have a weight advantage.

My car is running as per original figures so I guess the T5 could well have been standard. The Cally would be quicker off the line but from then on much the same I'd guess.

John M.

[Simon Linton]

The Performance Section rolling road session has confirmed that some modifications deliver what the say, while others don't.

But one thing is certain; uprating an engine by some 30% is going to throw out much of its ancillary systems, even if you get the ECU to adapt to alll the mods.

Cooling, induction, exhaust, oil supply and most essentially handling and braking have all got to be uprated in concert with engine power or the result will be unreliable or lethal vehicles.

To do this takes money as well as time and lots of both, so potential tuners be prepared for the long haul and the large bill before automotive nirvana is achieved.

Alex Z,

Just out of interest, how is the top speed of the T5 limited? Electronically or mechanically, without any limiters how fast would the T5/T5R run too (provided a long enough stretch of runway/track was provided?)

Just interested :)

Regards,

My T5 has an electronic fuel shut off at 5500rpm in top gear which is 155mph. Apparently a stock (delimited) T5 will go to 162mph but I have no solid info on that, but I do know that the car is still accelerating fairly fast when it hits the limiter.

It is ECU controlled as it can be removed, not something like a rotor arm limiter on my 240!

The theoretical maximum speed I believe is 174mph, although that is purely theory as there are many other factors between you and that speed!!

There is a chap who claims to have GPS tracking him at 168mph, with a BSR chip and the speedo showing over 170..

Don't forget that every mph at that speed requires significant horsepower increase, many supercars can only do 20mph more than a T5s top speed despite having surely better aerodynamics and probably 150 or 200 horses more.

Oh, and there are 11.6 sec 1/4 mile 850s out there :> :> Anyone who wants serious info on tuning would do good to read the feature 'Coupe de Grace' on www.swedespeed.com about Kai's famous C70.. it'll start you thinking!!

If I remember correctly at those types of speeds the aerodynaics don't really have that much to do with drag, more to do with keeping the car stable (Most supercars have a higer drag factor than hot hatches iirc).

This shows itself with things like the Aston MArtin V8 Vantage - many BHP, sqaureish front end, and still 180+.....

Stu

I'll go with the stuff on modding from Simon - beforte you make something go fast make sure it will stop and is stable at those speeds.

[noiseboy]

Mine did 167.4MPH at Power Engineering - obviously without drag....

Thats with the factory speed limiter removed.

Phil :-)

Does it do the same along the M40 Eh Phil


:)


Gareth